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Tuesday, November 30, 2010

In one of the US diplomatic cables leaked by Wikileaks yeasterday the Rafale is qualidied of "yesterday technology" by king Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain.

If the opinion of the gulf state king about the Rafale is of little relevance, the context of his sentense, however, is quite interesting :

[...]"King Hamad asked General Petraeus for his help in encouraging US aircraft manufacturers to participate in the inaugural Bahrain Air Show, scheduled for January 2010,"

"He said that France was pushing the Rafale and would be there in force although he agreed with Petraeus that the French fighter was yesterday's technology"[...]

The very interesting outcome of this cable is not what King Hamad said about the Rafale (what does he know about military aerospace anyway ?) but the fact that he is actually using the French plane as a mean of pressure on the US General Petraeus to get more US aircrafts at his airshow.

So the question is : why King Hamad has chosen the Rafale to pressure US authorities rather than another European or Russian fighter jets ?Well, simply because the Rafale technology is the only one capable of annoying a US General ... :)

It has been confirmed by several serious sources : the Rafale M18 crashed last sunday, because it ran out of gas !
How is that possible ? Well the inquiry will tell, but it might have been the result of a gage failure or misinterpretation. A system failure might had hapenned during or just after the inflight refueling at the beginning of the mission forcing the Rafale to return to the aircraft carrier for an emergency landing. But the fuel tanks of the M18 would had empty before the pilot could reach the CdG...

The Rafale M F3 which crashed 100km off the pakistani cost yesterday was the M18 delivered in 2008 to the french Navy.
Apparently, the pilot was very experienced on the type with more than 2000 flight hours and a participation to the last Aghanistan campaign in 2007..

The wreckage of the plane are laying at a depth of more than 2500 m.
The first rumors tell that the crash could have been provoked by a fuel management problem or mistake.

For the record, the M18 was among the 6 Rafale M F2 which took part in the JTFEX exercice with the US Navy in June and July 2008. During the exercice, it was integrated to the carrier air wing 7 on board the CVN-71 Theodore Roosevelt from july, 17th to july, 23rd.
As such, it is one of the very rare french fighter jet which had the opportunity to be landed by night on a US super carrier.

It was also the Rafale that made the Navy demonstration at the "Ferté Alais" show in May 2009.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

The defense journalist Jean-Dominique Merchet has revealed, on his blog Secret Defense, that a Rafale M of the CdG has crashed today, 100 km off the cost of Pakistan.
The Rafale would have had a problem during its transit to its patrol zone, forcing the pilot to go back to the CdG. unfortunately, he was not able to land and had to eject near the aircraft carrier. He has been picked up alive by the "Pedro" safety helicopter of the board (An Alouette III or a Dauphin). The exact cause(s) of the crash are not known yet.

This is the 3rd crash of a Rafale M since the entry into service of the type in 2001. Last September 2009, 2 Rafale M (M22 and M25) had been lost due to a mid air collision during a standard F3 qualification mission.
It is also worth noting that this is the first Rafale crash during a war mission.

The french navy ordered 60 Rafale M.

31 has been delivered

3 has been lost (incliding today's crash)

10 (Rafale M2 to M10) of the early standard F1 are in storage waiting to be retrofited

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Yesterday, noverber 25th, Admiral Mark Guadagnini, commander of the US carrier strike group 9 led by the CVN-72 Abraham Lincoln, was welcome onboard CVN R-91 Charles de Gaulle by the french admiral Jean-Louis Kerignard, commander of the Task Force 473.

The first pictures of the Agapanthe 2010 show that the typical Rafale M load for this tour is 4 GBU-12 and 2 RPL741 tanks (2x2000L), as well as 2 Mica IR. During the previous Afghanistan campaings, the Rafale M were only carrying RPL 701 tanks (1250L)

For their first mission, on November 26th, the french Rafale and Super Etendard, have watch over a british ground patrol in the south of Afghanistan, supported a medevac and been assigned to a CAS alert

Friday, November 26, 2010

November, 23rd. The embassy defense representatives of Brazil, USA, Germany, Japan, Turkey and Croatia have visited the St Dizier Air base, east of France. they had the opportunity to have a look at all the air base installations including the SAM defense and firemen squadrons as well as the falcon house and the maintenance section. The climax of the visit was the presentation of the Rafale and of the facilities of the "Provence" and "Aquitaine" squadrons

Well at least, that what the french Rafale pilot Captain Romain is telling on his blog :

[...]

From now on, the Brazilians were able to fly on Rafale and their pilots are now, as every pilot who has tested the Rafale, merely in love of a fully omnirole and operational aircraft.

[...]

This was in response to a reader who was worrying about the increasing anti-french attitude of some brazilian media (blogs and newspapers) which are openly lobbying for Saab and which are at the origin of the widely spread rumor telling that the FAB is in favor of the Gripen.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

SAO PAULO — Boeing is offering to partner with Brazil's Embraer on a new fighter jet, in an effort to strengthen its bid for a multi-billion-dollar Brazilian defense contract, the US manufacturer said in a report Monday.

Joseph McAndrew, Boeing's vice president for Europe, Israel and America, told business publication Valor that the firm proposed 10 partnership projects with Brazil's aviation leader, including building a new plant in the country to build parts for Boeing's F/A-18 Super Hornet.

[...]

Valor reported that Boeing offered Embraer assembly of the F/A-18, as well as manufacture of the nose, wings and tail.

"Never before has Boeing offered such a broad, clear package of technology transfer dedicated to Brazil," McAndrew told the journal.

"All elements of the US government that could veto such a transfer signed a pledge saying they will not veto it. Both Congress and the Defense Department," he said.

[...]

guns, guns, guns ! The F/A-18E is in the Rafale gunsight, this time...

Rafale News comment : Boeing last chance in the FX-2 contest was a victory of Jose Serra (pro-US center right PSDB party) at the presidential elections in October. Fortunately for Dassault, Dilma Rousseff won. This desperate move is more an indication that the fight is over for the Super Hornet in Brazil. The Next round will be for the UAE market and , this time, we can be sure that the US commercial and political war machine will run at full power to crunch the Rafale hopes...

Sunday, November 21, 2010

October, 25th, the French weapon agency "DGA" has received the 1000th mica missile (An IR one) on the 1110 ordered for the french forces. the last one should be delivered by MBDA in 2012.

In addition to those 1000 french Mica, more than 1000 has been exported to foreign Air forces (Qatar, Taiwan, Greece, EAU) and navies (Morocco, Oman).

The DGA also points out 3 interesting features of the MICA :

It can be shot at a target behind the aircraft using third party initial designation through link 16.

It has a internal multi target capability allowing each missile to optimize its detonation point in order to strike several targets in close formation at once.

The IR version can be used as an IRST which can detect incoming enemy missiles in the front sector

To celebrate the event we have made a commemorative drawing showing the Rafale with an hypothetical load of 10 mica (6 EM and 4 IR) :)
This very powerfull warload will probably never be cleared because the 2 hardpoints in the center of the fuselage seems to have been definitely discarded for the Mica despite what was demonstrated on the Rafale A, 20 years ago.

Rafale with a mica on the external wing hardpoint (Bourget 2009)

However, the 2 external hardpoints of the wings, which are not exploited yet, could soon receive the Mica. As far as we know, the wiring is there, and only the inflight tests remained to be done. For the record, it is mainly the UAE which had been pushing to integrate the Mica on those 2 hardpoints but the French Air Force had also shown some kind of interest for the matter... but as usual it will end up as a budget issue.

The FX-2 contest seems to accelerate and a lot of events have occured last week.

First, Cruzex V, which has ended Friday, 19th, has allowed the French Air Force to demonstrate the potential of the Rafale in a large scale, intensive exercice. The first rumors from the debriefing rooms seem to indicate that the french fighter would have been quite convincing in the BVR arena. Besides, several Brasilian pilots had the opportunity to fly and evaluate the Rafale during some training missions (picture on the left).
Several media thought that the FX-2 decision could be revealed at the end of Cruzex, but it has not been the case.

Saturday 20th, Brasilian defense minister Nelson jobim has met the french economy Minister, Christine Lagarde at Rio de Janeiro. During this meeting jobim has stated, once again, that the french offer for the FX-2 contest was the most interesting concerning tranfer of technology.

"We don't buy fighters, but a technological package"

Nelson Jobim salutes french Rafale pilots during Cruzex V VIP day

Nelson jobim made clear that the main purpose of the FX-2 project was not only to acquire fighter jets but also to buy industrial knowlege. Inded, Brazil intends to play a major role in the aerospace sector in the future.

According to him, Lulla and Dilma Rousseff should decide and may reveal their political choice in the next 3 weeks (ie before december, 19th). This announcement will end the FX-2 decision process for good after 2 years of evaluation.

In a last attempt to jeopardize a final decision in favor of Saab or Dassault, Boeing, whose offer is said to be the weakest on the ToT ground, has openly critized the selection process and beg for the opportunity to propose a new offer. But it is unlikly that the US resquest will be accepted at this stage of the contest as the Brazilian defense Ministry simply declined to comment the Boeing's critics.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Novenber, 14th, Alain Juppé officially replaces Hervé Morin as the french defense Minister. As far as the Rafale is concerned, we will remember that Mr. Juppé was the prime Minister of President Chirac between 1995 and 1997, a period when the entry into service of the Rafale in the french Air Force was delayed for 4 years, shifting from 2001 to 2005.
Juppé will have the delicate task to manage 2 major export prospects of the Rafale :
Brazil where the decision for 36 fighters is expected before the end of the year (and possibly as soon as november, 19th, at the end of the Cruzex 5 exercise taking place in Natal, East of Brazil)
United Arab Emirates, where the current negotiations for 60 machines seem very difficult for the Rafale.

11/09 Vice president Of Dassault Aviation Eric Trappier has met Luiz Marinho, the mayor of Sao Bernado city, to state multiple agreements on aerospace cooperation between the Rafale international consortium and the Brazilian industry and univerties.

This new step by the french consortium seems to be a direct respond to Saab initiative to create a research center in the same city last month.

According to Defesanet, Rafale international has already commited to 67 projects involving 38 Brazilian companies. Discussions between Embraer and Dassault engineers would have already took place, which is rather surprising considering the pro-Gripen attitude of Embraer during the last months.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

In the 2011 defense budget law of the french National Assembly, the deputy François Cornut-Gentille tackles the issue of the mica missile successor. According to this repport, the missile will need to be replaced between 2020 and 2025. Considering that about 10 years are required to develop and integrate such a weapon, the deputy is urging the french assembly to launch a new medium range missile program as soon as possible otherwise, the french military could have no other choice than to buy a US missile in 10 years...

The MBDA Mica Missile has entered into french Air Force service in 1996 on the Mirage 2000-5. It was also the first non-US "Fox 3" missile to be operational in NATO forces.Available in IR and EM version, it has been exported to Taiwan, Greece, UAE, Qatar for their mirage 2000-5, as well as to Morocco (mirage F1 upgrade) and Oman (VL Mica). Today, it is the primary Air defense missile of the Rafale for CAC and BVR engagements and it should be complemented after 2015 by the MBDA Meteor missile for very long range interception. (>100 km)

The mica is a very versatile missile as both versions are capable of extreme maneuvering at close range thanks to the TVC and, at the same time, able of medium range BVR engagements thanks to a very high velocity/acceleration (mach 4 reached in the few seconds), and data link.

Besides TVC and an IIR seeker, this last point is the main difference between the Mica IR and its russian cousin, the R-27 T/ET. Indeed, the lack of data link prevents the R-27 T to be locked after launch and therefore limit its effective firing range to the range of its IR seeker. That the reason why, unlike the Mica IR, it's not a truly BVR IR missile but rather a long endurance FOX 2 intended to catch up fleeing targets at 10-15 km range.

Despite all those qualities that make it one of the most dangerous air defense missile on the battlefield today, the Mica has some drawbacks :

It's small and light, which is good, but that limited size also prevents the Mica to compete with the last versions of the larger AIM-120C7/D amraam when it comes to raw effective range.

It is very expensive due to the rather limited number of units produced, compared to the amraam

It has a one way datalink whereas up&down datalinks are becoming the norm for BVR missiles.

A nice set of Rafale M pictures can be seen on the Pics-aeronef forum. They show the Rafale training at the Hyeres naval base, while waiting for the CdG to be repaired.
Apparently, specific ground staff training was performed with live AASM "Hammer" bombs : It reminds us that the CdG and its airgroup are going to war...

PARIS - Safran's Snecma engines division on Nov. 9 signed a five-year partnership with the service arm of the French Air Force to share engine maintenance on Mirage 2000 and Rafale fighter jets, as well as the A400M airlifter.

The deal is intended to boost readiness rates, speed up response times and cut costs, Snecma executives said.

[...]

It is interesting to note that this agreement also states that the french Air Force maintenance service could be asked to provide assistance to Snecma in order to maintain the engines of export customers of the mirage 2000 (and probably exported Rafale engines too, I presume) :

[...]

A pooling of resources is intended to smooth out the peaks and troughs of maintenance work on the military engines, both for the French service and Snecma's foreign clients, which operate export versions of the Mirage 2000.

Thus, if Snecma needs help to service military engines for foreign clients, it can ask the SIAé to assist with the workload.
[...]

Sunday, November 7, 2010

According to the Sunday Telegraph the Typhoon would have prevailed during the technical tests performed a few months ago by the Indian Air force.
The British news paper, is citing an unnamed Indian source :

A senior Indian official has told The Sunday Telegraph that its air force's technical findings have been forwarded to the defence ministry, where a final decision is expected to be made in the next few months. "There are a number of cost and strategic considerations which still have to be looked at, but in purely technical terms, Eurofighter is ahead," the official said.

As always with indian leaks from unnamed "official" this information should be taken with a pinch of salt. Last August, the Indian channel TimeShow TV had also revealed that the Typhoon and Rafale had been shortlisted by the IAF after the technical evaluation, a scoop, that the indian Ministry of defense had denied a week later.

Here are the results of our last pool (83 voters) :
To the question "which weapon(s) should be integrated to the Rafale to enhance its export sales" the 2 big winners with more than 40% of votes are the US made AIM-120C7 amraam and the JDAM family of GPS bombs. As a matter of fact, the last version of the amraam is seen as a big advantage on export markets. It is worth noting that all the main western concurrents of the Rafale (F-16/15/18/35, Typhoon and Gripen) use this missile.

As far as as JDAM family is concerned, it is most likely a question of price. Indeed, those GPS guided bombs are mass produced for the US forces allowing very low prices for export. As good as the Rafale AASM GPS bombs are, they are certainly a bit of an overkill for the current low intensity conflicts.

Boeing JDAM bomb

Next most wanted weapons with more than 20% of votes appear to be short range air-to-air missiles like the European Iris-T , the Israeli Python V and the US AIM-9X. It seems that the Mica IR currently used for the role on the Rafale is not considered to be the best option, or that it should be complemented by a less expensive alternative.
Also in the "top five" is the US Anti radar missile AGM-88 HARM, a class of weapon that the Rafale simply does not have in its inventory yet.

Just below 20% of votes, we can also cite the SDB and the Brimstone, 2 interresting weapons for CAS missions.